


i'll be seeing you

by MrsNoraPalmer



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/M, Teen!Nora, Time Travel Shenanigans, followed by angst, i promise i tried to make it as least confusing as possible, nora is completely smitten with ray even at seventeen, ray has always been a bad liar, ray palmer puppy dog eyes x2, soft teenage darhkatom, teen!ray
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 09:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17342993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsNoraPalmer/pseuds/MrsNoraPalmer
Summary: Sometime in 2020, a 17 year old Nora Darhk finds a newspaper with the announcement of her future self's engagement to Tech Mogul Ray Palmer. She doesn't realize it's her future self at first but immediately recognized Ray from when the Legends helped her three years prior. She drives herself crazy until she realizes it must be her future self and is pissed it takes her this long to find happiness. Nora is determined now, to go back using a time spell to Ivy Town 1998 and get an extra 20 years with Ray. What she doesn't realize is how catastrophic that would be to the rest of reality.





	i'll be seeing you

**Author's Note:**

> I have literally no idea where this idea came from but I definitely blame beth and sophie so...

She’d been sleeping in his bed with him in it for the past three nights. After the first she was like “I’m not kicking you out of your bed.” And honestly? In Nora Darhk’s short life thus far, it’d been the best sleep she’d ever gotten. Nora has ray set an alarm so she would wake five minutes before his mom and she could slip underneath the bed, in case his mom came in to check on him. It was becoming increasingly hard to leave his embrace. It made her feel safe and alive in ways she hadn’t ever felt.

They woke that morning as per usual, just five minutes before his mom’s alarm went off and Nora could honestly not be bothered to move. She laid there, facing up at the ceiling, Ray was pushed as far up against the wall between her and the edge of the bed and had an arm thrown across her middle. She knew Ray was being a gentelman about the whole thing and really wasn’t sure about share a bed but he was awfully cuddly when they slept. Nora loved it though.

She felt Ray shift beside her and watched him lift up his head. He gave her a sleepy smile and she passed her hand through his stupidly adorable bed head. Ray removed his arm from around her and Nora sat up in the bed.

“I guess I’ll have to get out of this comfy bed and crawl underneath to the floor.” Nora sighed. 

Ray gave her a look. “My mom could come in and check on me you know that’s why we have to do that.”

Nora shrugged. “When has your mom done that in the past three days? You know what would fix that? Locking your door, Palmer.”

Ray cocked his head. “You know, I hadn’t thought about that…” Ray climbed over her and got up to lock his door. Nora grinned and stretched like a cat in the bed. 

“See? Problem solved.” Nora rested her hands in her lap.

Ray sat on the edge of the bed and sighed. “Too early to get ready for school but maybe I could get a head start on my robotics project!” Ray turned on his bedside lamp and pulled his notes from his backpack that was on the floor by the end of the bed.

Nora put a hand over his. “Or we could sleep in until you have to go to school?”

“I ugh don’t know if getting back in bed would be the best idea.” Ray rubbed the back of his neck and coughed awkwardly. 

“Why not?”

“Cause we really shouldn’t share a bed in the first place… it’s nice but… it just doesn’t feel appropriate I mean like we haven’t even talked about anything you just showed up and said ‘hey long story short I need you to hide me in your house because you’re going to be really important to us someday.’ I can’t believe I actually went through with it but ever since Sydney graduated early, I really haven’t any friends and then this really pretty girl shows up and says ‘I live here now’ I really felt like I couldn’t turn the opportunity down… and…” Nora stopped him by grabbing his face in his hands.

“Stop talking,” she whispered.

“Okay.” Ray nodded nervously. 

Nora shook her head. She could see why her older self would’ve fall for the kind considerate man he ended up becoming, because Nora was falling for this version of him twenty years earlier.

“Nora, are you going to let go of my face cause I really should get that work done…”

Nora smiled and shook her head. “Nope.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“You’ve been so wonderful and I wish I could tell you more about why you’re so important to me. It’s really, really complicated, but I wanted to thank you for sort of not questioning this random girl showing up on your doorstep asking for shelter.”

Ray nodded. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

Nora’s heart swelled. The best part of his answer was that it didn’t surprise her one bit. She smiled softly and pulled him for a soft kiss. A shockwave bloomed around them, and Nora pulled away. 

“What was that?”

“No idea, are you okay?” Ray asked and placed his hands on her forearms. 

“Yeah no I’m fine…” Nora pulled Ray in for a tight hug. Did her magic do this? Was she not allowed to love because of Mallus? Only time would tell.

xxxx

Sara felt it first, on the bridge of the Waverider. The team, Nora and Ray included, were walking onto the bridge when it happened. Nora and Ray nearly fell into each other but Ray caught her and steadiest himself as well.

“The hell was that?” Zari asked.

Sara sighed. “Timequake.” She looked around the room for any missing team members and found none. Okay so none of them were responsible.

“Gideon, can you tell me the origin of the timequake?”

“Certainly Captain Lance. The time quake originated from Ivy Town 1998.”

“Okay, plot a course.” Sara replied, looking at Ray the whole time. 

Ray shrugged. “I don’t know what’s going on, I can’t think of anything that happened in 1998 that would’ve caused this.”

“Well keep thinking, I’ll keep digging just to be sure,” Sara said.

Sara, Nora, and Ray all took up a console and started digging through records. Just to make sure it wasn’t an early invention of Ray’s causing the time quake, he did a facial recognition scan of himself in 1998. He paused on one of him at a mall near a women’s clothing store. Which was odd. Because he didn’t have a girlfriend, or sisters, and never went clothing shopping with his mother. Ray zoomed in on himself and noticed a girl was with him. Ray knew he didn’t have many friends much less a girlfriend in high school, but he didn’t think a version of himself getting one would cause a timequake but maybe. He studied the girl’s face, it looked so familiar. She had blonde hair but something looked so, so familiar about her. He’d been staring at the picture far too long because now Sara and Nora were both trying to peer over his shoulder to see what he’d found.

“Well? Is there something significant about the photo?” Sara asked. 

Ray felt Nora tense beside him and then it all made sense.

“Yeah, Sara, I think there is,” Nora started. “That’s me at seventeen.” She pointed at the other figure next to teen Ray. 

“Fuck.” Was all Sara said before Gideon notified them they had landed in 1998.

xxxx

Nora and Ray didn’t know whether or not to leave the room much less the bed. They tried to lay there, enjoy one another. Nothing had drastically changed. She wasn’t even sure if anything had changed at all. She looked up at Ray and pulled him in for another kiss. Nothing happened that time except she could feel Ray’s hesitancy in the kiss. No shockwave though so she supposed that was good. Nora pulled away and smiled at him.

“I think everything will be okay. We don’t have to hide. I don’t think we’re in trouble.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes I am.” She said. Nora knew something had gone wrong. Not between them but on a much larger scale. She didn’t want to tell Ray that though. She leaned in and kissed him once more, feeling him be more at ease with the kiss. They continued to exchange kisses for a few minutes until Nora curled into his body.

Nora rested her head on Ray’s chest and tried to calm her breathing. Ray was gently passing his hand through her hair, she wasn’t sure if she liked the blonde. She had bleached it the day after she showed up to make sure she stayed hidden from any order operatives that might be hidden throughout time. Granted, her parents had only just gotten married and were another five years away from having her. The possibility of her being found out were unlikely.

Until someone knocked on Ray’s bedroom door.

“Ray…” his mom said, “there are some people here from social services that want to talk about a runaway friend of yours. After that I think we need to talk about your choice in friends now that you’re making some.”

Nora paled and looked at Ray. She glanced to the closet and rushed over there, sticking herself in the smallest and darkest corner she could find.

Ray brushed his hands onto his pants and nervously finger combed his hair. “Ugh yeah sure, mom!”

He got up and unlocked the door, a small group of people were behind his mom, and at least three of them looked familiar somehow, but he couldn’t place it.

Sandy told Ray to get ready for school once the people left and to take the bus this morning since she had to get to work. Ray nodded and shut the door behind him and the group of four.

“How can I help you guys?” Ray tried to act nonchalant but that was never and would never be his strong suit.

Sara smiled. “We’re here from child services to ask you about a friend of yours that may have contacted you about staying with you. Her name is Nora or she might go by Emily as well, have you seen her?”

Teenage Ray, overdoing it, shook his head and made a big gesture with his hands. “No, not at all.”

The older Ray leaned over and whispered to Nora. “Wow I really am a bad liar.”

Nora chuckled and nudged him. “You’ve gotten better.”

“Are you sure? Ray, you’re not going to get in trouble if you were helping her and know where she is. We just want to have her returned him safely.”

“So she can what? Go back to whatever life she was stuck in? That’s not exactly fair to her.”

“Ray it’s for the best,” this time it was Older Nora. “She has a lot of stuff going on and if she doesn’t return home to work it out things could get worse.”

Teen Nora, unable to take the bullshit being spewed by her future self, stormed out of the corner she’d been hiding in, in the closet.

“Okay we both know that’s a load of crap.”

Older Nora has thought the picture quality had just been bad. No. There she was, her younger self, with an awful dye job to make her hair a terrible blonde shade.

“Nora, you need to come back to 2020. The results of you staying here could literally wreck all of reality. We know, someone on our team breaks time at least once every six months,” said Sara.

“Team? 2020? Nora what are they talking about? I know you have magic and yeah I’m still accepting that but now they’re making it sound like you’re a time traveling witch,” Teen Ray walked over to her, completely puzzled, hoping she could put the pieces in place.

Teen Nora took his hand. “I told you it was a long story.” She gave him a sad smile and then turned to the group. “Don’t you understand? My life, our life is already so much better.”

Older Nora stepped forward to confront her younger self. “Nora, that’s just not how it works. Believe me. I know what you’re going through. I really do. I was tempted all the time to find a way to escape this but if I hadn’t it wouldn’t have led me here. To a life without Mallus and to people that really care about me. But the results of this could be catastrophic.”

“So that’s just it. You don’t even want to see if this will work? You are going to turn down the opportunity to let yourself be with Ray twenty years earlier?”

It all finally clicked for Teen Ray. “Wait a minute. I’m this guy?” He pointed to older Ray. “And you’re her?” He pointed to Older Nora. “And this version of us is from the future?”

Nora nodded. “I told you it was really really complicated… I thought I could disappear and no one would ever bother me again but I guess somehow our future selves think it’s necessary to butt in.”

Older Nora rolled her eyes. “That’s because this is literally the dumbest plan you’ve ever had. I’ve ever had. Whatever!”

Sara, ready to get this over with finally spoke again. “If you four are done, I think I know the most effective way to settle this.” Sara cracker her knuckles, ready to knock out teen Nora’s lights and just have Ray carry her back to the ship.

Older Nora caught Sara’s fist. “That’s not how we end this.” 

Sara retracted, looking pissed and Ray gently touched Nora’s arm. 

“Are you sure? I mean like do we really know how bad this would be to the timeline? Look at them. They’re us. They look happy. You don’t think you ever thought what it would be like to be a normal teenager?” Ray gave her that puppy dog eyes look that made it really, really hard to resist.

“Of course I did. Until the Order beat that normalcy out of me. I’m possessed by this point, Ray. I’m a danger. Younger me might not know it but I sure as hell do.”

“And we know how to defeat the demon inside her.”

“And if I remember what you said, in order to release him and defeat him I died. The only reason I survived is because my dad became the vessel instead. And Damien Darhk in 1998 is sure as hell not going to do that so we’re out of options.”

Zari shrugged. “We could try to find a loophole. It’s worth a shot.”

“Then the past twenty years of my life are just gone. They were literally terrible but they led me here. You don’t know how crucial Ray’s formidable years without me shape him to be the man he is today and same goes for me.”

Ray, giving her the sad puppy dog eyes. “Can you please let Zari figure this out?”

Teen Ray pulled the same face and looked at older Nora. “Yeah come on, please?”

Older Nora felt in that moment how it was to be so mad at and yet so in love with someone. “No.”

All parties sighed in exasperation.

“Nora, you need to come back with us.” Older Nora repeated.

Teen Nora shook her head. “I just can’t go back there. Ray clearly makes you happy so why can’t this Ray make me just as happy?”

Nora sat down on Ray’s bed and patted the space next to her. That’s when it occurred to her there were no pillows or blankets on the floor and she looked between the younger her and Ray. “Where have you been sleeping?”

Teen Nora and Ray glances at each other. “I sort of have been sleeping next to Ray. We squeeze into the bed. I’m small so i don’t take up much room.”

Nora, horrified at her younger self. “You what now?”

“It was my idea! All me. Ray has been a total gentleman.” Teen Nora defended. “Honestly, we’ve just been sleeping. We kissed this morning but then something happened. But that’s it. And we may have been making out until right before you got here...”

“The timequake. The kiss must’ve caused the timequake.” Nora looked up at Sara.

“It seems you two seem to be a powerful couple in any timeline.” Sara crossed her arms over her chest.

Nora rolled her eyes and patted the space next to her again. Her younger self took the spot and sighed. 

“What?”

“Do you want to see your engagement ring?”

“See my what?”

“See your engagement ring? You saw our engagement announcement and that’s what started this whole thing isn’t it?”

Teen Nora was quiet for a minute before nodding.

Nora smoked. “That’s what I thought. I was you once after all. So do you want to see your engagement ring?”

Teen Nora, nodded, still pissed at her older self for insisting she goes back, but couldn’t help but give a small smile at the prospect of seeing her future engagement ring.

Nora held out her left hand and let teen Nora inspect the piece of jewelry.

“How did he propose?”

“He found out we hadn’t celebrated Christmas in a really long time and decided to decorate where we live with a bunch of Christmas decor. Then he proposed.”

“That’s so romantic!!! And our ring is so pretty! He did good.” Teen Nora smiled up at the older Ray. “I also can’t believe we grow up and marry the cute guy from the coffee shop that tried to help us!”

“We do. It’s where he and I had our first date, too.” She smiled. “Your life is good, Nora. It ends up so good. There was a lot of pain and darkness for a long time there but honestly I wouldn’t change anything. Which is why you need to come back with us. You need to let time run its course.”

Teen Nora retracted her affections. “I just can’t. You said I live for another 20 years in the Order. Being groomed to be Mallus’s vessel.”

“And then our dad made the ultimate sacrifice and took our place. I don’t want him to have done that in vain. If you do this, he will more than likely stay dead. No person to sacrifice themselves so you can live. This is honestly a death sentence, Nora.”

“I’d rather have thirty minutes of something wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special. At least for the next twenty years. I didn’t ask for powers, I didn’t ask to be a demon vessel. I finally was able to do something to get away and make my own choices for once in my life and you want me to give all that up? Again?”

Nora swallowed hard. She knew her younger self had a point. It wasn’t fair to ask her to do this, to preserve her timeline but Nora also knew that if her younger self did not return to 2020, the potential effects to the greater space-time continuum would be chaos. “I know this is hard for you but you have to be strong. Practice your magic, separate from Mallus, read as much as you can, do only what you’re told and nothing more, nothing less, and you will survive this and end up as me, a hero and marrying the love of your life next month.”

Teen Nora got up from the bed and hugged Teen Ray. “I don’t want to leave.” She felt tears rush forth.

Teen Ray hugged her back. “I want you to be safe and the future it sounds like you’re going back to sounds literally awful but I think… I think they have a point. Look at us. We look happy. What’s another twenty years when we’ll spend the rest of our lives together?” Teen Ray pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I think you should go with them.”

Nora was mad. Everyone wanted her to return but her. What was so bad about this? She wanted it so bad but no one else did. Nora tore away from Ray, pissed. “Why won’t anyone let me be happy?”

I can bring you all the power in the world. Power to let you live your life how you wish.

A voice echoed through her mind. Mallus. He was taking over. Her anger must’ve triggered it.

“Everyone get back!” Teen Nora yelled and then Mallus took over.

“Why let everyone leave the party when we are just getting started?” Mallus said through Nora.

Sara and the others backed up. “Okay I think we need to leave now. Ray do you have your Nanite gun?”

Ray nodded and tried to approach Nora but he was thrown back. The two Ray’s shared a look and the older Ray tossed the gun to his younger self when Nora wasn’t looking.

Teen Ray stood up and approached Nora slowly. “Hey, it’s okay. We can do this together. We can figure out a way to balance all of this.”

“You only want to trick and control. Only I know what the vessel wants.” Mallus seethed.

Teen Ray held up the gun and shot it off. “No I really don’t think you do.”

Just as Ray shot off the gun Mallus used Nora to throw ray against the wall, hard. He crumpled to the ground and fell unconscious just as Nora gained control after the shot.

“Ray? RAY!” Teen Nora ran over to the crumbled body of the younger version of her future husband and tried to pull his head in her lap. “Please wake up. Please.” Tears came forth again. “Do something!” She shouted at the group.

“He’ll be fine. If he wasn’t, I wouldn’t be standing here.”

Nora sighed only in partial relief because the gratification of Ray coming to instead was delayed. She looked up at her older self, older Ray, Zari, and Sara. They were all trying to help her. 

“Okay, fine. I’ll do it. Take me back to 2020 but make sure Ray is okay first.”

Sara nodded. “We’ll take you both to the medbay and wipe your memories.”

“Wait what?”

xxxx

Nora and Ray both observed their younger selves in the medbay. Nora was sedated and so was teen ray. It was like looking in two very different mirrors juxtaposed next to one another in an art installation.

Nora reached for her fiancé’s hand and looked up at him. “I know that must’ve been hard for you to do. The younger you and the present you.”

“I’ve shot you with one of those before and you lived. I guess I just had to have faith my younger self made the same assumption:”

Nora nodded. “Yeah, well at least we’ll get you treated for your injuries before time cements and then we’ll wipe your memories and drop you off at school then wake me up and drop her back in 2020. I hate that I’m right. I hate that this is how it’s supposed to be. But I also think my younger self was wrong.”

“Wrong about what?”

“She said that she was doing this because she would rather have thirty minutes of something wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special. She was wrong. We’re going to have a wonderful life. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but it makes up for the last awful twenty years. A lifetime with you is anything but nothing special.”

Ray smiled. “I’m proud of you, Nora, so proud of all the progress you’ve made. You’re a completely different person and yet I see so much of her still in you. She just craves life and I see how since being free of Mallus you’ve done that. You’ve craved life.”

Nora kissed him gently and rested her head on his chest. 

“You wanna know what else I realized?” Nora asked with a huge grin on her face. She took her head off his chest and flashed it to him.

“What’s that?” Ray asked and absently stroked her hair.

“You were still my first kiss. And I got to have it at seventeen.” She grinned. “Even if my younger self won’t remember I will.”

“Seeing you that happy about it almost makes this whole mess worth it.” Ray grinned and kisses her softly.

The younger Nora started coming to and jolted awake. Ray walked over to her and placed a hand on her arm. “You’re safe. You’re on our time ship. Ray I mean me, whatever this is confusing, is still recovering but should be awake any time now.”

Teen Nora gripped Ray’s arm. “He’s gonna be okay?” She looked down and saw that her hair had also been returned to its black shade. “You also have the ability to change my hair color?”

“We do and of course he’s going to be okay, look at me I turned out pretty good.”

“Yeah… do you remember when we sang show tunes?”

“Oh for the Oklahoma question during Headz Up?”

“No, the day after I got to 1998, I saw all of Ray’s VHS’s and we watched a bunch of musicals that night. And sang along. It was nice.”

“I’m sorry, Nora, I don’t. Time hasn’t cemented yet and we’ll be wiping my memory anyways.”

“Oh no please don’t!”

“We have to, we have no idea what even the knowledge of this event could do to either of you.”

Nora was quiet. “Why are there so many rules about the ways things have to be? I just want to be normal… I didn’t ask for any of this.”

“I know, and we’re sorry. If it could be any other way we’d make it so.”

Nora nodded quietly, sitting back in her chair.

Teen Ray came to and Teen Nora went to greet him. “Ray?”

Teen Ray shook his head. He felt like he’d been hit by a bus. “Nora?”

“Hey… it’s me. I’m sorry about what happened.”

“No it’s all out of your control. At least we’re both okay. Where are we?”

“In the ship we live on in the future. You’re gonna be okay. But Ray, they have to wipe our memories. Neither of us will remember the last few days. Or at least, the parts we spent together.” Nora cupped one of his cheeks in her hands. He held her wrist with both of his hands.

“I don’t want to forget you.”

“Me neither but we’ll see each other again soon. I have to believe that. Just remember I like my hot chocolate with whipped cream and caramel drizzle.” She smiled.

“Will do. I guess this is goodbye for now, Nora Darhk, I’ll be seeing you.”

Nora tried not to cry as she started to mentally prepare herself to leave him. She wouldn’t see him again for another twenty years. Nora leaned in and kissed Ray softly. Trying to not drip her tears onto his face.

They pulled away and Nora started walked towards their older counterparts she looked back at the love of her life and sucked in a deep breath. “I’ll be seeing you, Ray Palmer.”


End file.
